Description:Extensive work, funded in part by the Cumulative Environmental Management Association, has been devoted to developing sophisticated tools for evaluating shallow open water reclaimed marshes on oil sands mined land. These tools use environmental and biological measurements to assess the condition of individual wetlands, providing integrative scores that will help industry track wetland development and may assist the government in reaching certification decisions. These tools have undergone rigorous calibration and validation, have passed the peer review process, and are published in the scientific literature. In other words, they provide a scientifically sound and defensible approach to wetland assessment in the context of oil sands reclamation. OSRIN funded development of a video tutorial that lays out the field sampling process from start to finish in easy-to-follow steps and visually clarifies how protocols should be enacted. This helps standardize otherwise subjective decisions, like how to determine if a plant lies within a floristic quadrat.
This video was shot near Edmonton to demonstrate the physical, chemical and biological sampling recommended for characterizing reclaimed marshes. If the method were employed at an oil sands site, additional safety measures such as the use of personal floatation devices (life jackets) would be required.